Friday, August 15, 2014

Like so many others, I was incredibly saddened to hear of the passing of Donald Teeters on Wednesday. Boston is going to miss him intensely, and I wish he had had 20 more years of retirement so that he could have gone gallivanting around Prague and continued to enrich our lives in Boston.

I strongly encourage everyone to listen to this interview. Don Teeters was a great guy, and a great musician. If you knew him, you will love hearing the cadence of his voice and his twinkling personality. If you didn't, you will get a great life story and some wonderful opinions on music, Boston, and life.

Thursday, June 19, 2014

There have been a lot of goodbye's over the past couple of months, and there will be more to come before I leave in Boston, but one of the biggest ones is coming this Sunday.

Anthology has been so important to me these past six-and-a-half years. I have been very close to and supported by everyone in the group, and rehearsals were always one of the highlights of my week. I'm really proud of all the work we did, and grateful to have had a chance to sing such a wide variety of repertoire with singers who were so excellent.

Monday, May 26, 2014

Breaking my radio silence to share news of the Mass ACDA Summer Conference, which looks quite good. I won't be there myself (gotta save those pennies for my upcoming move to IL!) but I definitely recommend it to others!

Thursday, May 01, 2014

This coming Sunday, May 4 at 4 pm will be my final concert as the conductor of Cantilena! I have had such a wonderful time over the past five years with this dedicated, humorous, good-natured, talented group. I hope you will join me for my last concert with them, which is going to be a blast (and followed by delicious food!)

The program is called "Immovable Objects, Irresistible Forces: Songs of Human and Natural Wonders," and it's all about the different sorts of power we encounter in the world. We'll be singing Schubert's "Gott in der Natur," Carol Barnett's setting of Dorothy Parker's "Song of Perfect Propriety," an arrangement of Dvorak's "Largo" from his New World Symphony, Susan Borwick's bluesy interpretation of a speech by Sojourner Truth, and lots more. This concert has everything, so don't miss it! I would love to share this concert with as many people as possible. See you there!

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

It would seem that I am quite overdue for an update on this blog, but it's really been a rather eventful month.

All this year I spent applying to DMA programs in choral conducting. Earlier in April I found out that I have been accepted to the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and I will be moving there in August to study with Dr. Andrew Megill, who was just appointed Director of Choral Activities there in March. Needless to say, I am very happy about this; working with Dr. Megill ten years ago while doing my Masters at Westminster was wonderful, and I am looking forward to three more years of learning, especially at such a huge and terrific school.

Last night was my first set of good-bye's. The Lasell College Chorus, which I have directed since the fall of 2009, did a program of music from video games (plus two songs from Wicked.) They sounded great, and I was particularly pleased with their rendition of my arrangement of "Still Alive" from Portal (which I intend to post here on the blog when I get permission to make the sheet music available.) And then at the end of the concert they totally surprised me by getting up and singing "Seize the Day" from Newsies, which is one of my favorite Broadway pieces, and a song we had sung several times in years past. I was blown away that they had found the time to get together and rehearse during the busiest week of the semester. And they sounded really good, too! It was a very satisfying and emotional evening. I'm so proud of my kids! (I refer to anyone in any of my choruses under the age of 25 as "my kids.")

Next up is my final concert with Cantilena this coming Sunday, May 4 at 4 pm. Stay tuned for more info about that!

Friday, April 04, 2014

Samson had some dental surgery last month, but I am happy to say he appears to be doing well. And he would like to recommend some music to you! Have you heard The Sixteen's recording of Buxtehude's Membra Jesu Nostri? It's quite excellent, and Samson recommends you give it a listen!

P.S. I had to mess around with the photo layout quite a lot - let me know how it looks in your browser?

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

The Boston Landmarks Orchestra is thrilled to announce the return of its One City Choir this summer! The choir will be featured on Opening Night of the orchestra's 2014 season of concerts at the DCR's Hatch Shell on July 16. The featured choral work will be Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. The One City Choir, launched in the summer of 2012, is a large symphonic choir comprising committed and passionate singers from all of Boston’s 20 neighborhoods and many surrounding communities. The choir takes its name from the words of Boston civic leader Hubie Jones, who has advocated that “Boston can be one city through art and culture.”
All singers in the Boston area who have experience singing in choirs are invited to join the One City Choir. The choir will be joined by the Back Bay Chorale. Scott Allen Jarrett, music director of the Back Bay Chorale, will prepare the choir, and Landmarks Orchestra Music Director Christopher Wilkins will conduct the performance. Members of the One City Choir will perform some movements of Carmina Burana, and the Back Bay Chorale will perform the rest.Boston Landmarks Orchestra will provide access to practice copies for you to learn your music, and sufficient original printed copies will be obtained for the performance. An online pronunciation guide for the Latin and German text will also be provided. Rehearsals are scheduled as follows: Monday, July 7, 7-10 pm (choir and piano—One City Choir movements will be rehearsed first) location TBA Tuesday, July 8, 7-10 pm (choir and piano—One City Choir movements will be rehearsed first) location TBA Monday, July 14, 7-10 pm (choir, piano, and percussion) location TBA Tuesday, July 15, 7-10 pm (choir, soloists, and full orchestra): Christian Science Auditorium, 235 Huntington Ave., Boston (across the street from Symphony Hall, behind Horticultural Hall) Wednesday July 16, 5:30-6:30 pm at the Hatch Shell (concert is at 7:00 pm) Rain Location: Back Bay Events Center, John Hancock Hall, 180 Berkeley Street, Boston Locations for the other rehearsals will be announced shortly.
Please note that the choir will be standing on risers throughout second half of the concert (approximately 65 minutes of music). If you are unable to stand for this length of time, we will make every effort to accommodate you, but until we know the final size of the choir, we cannot determine if we can fit chairs or stools on the stage. If you would like to participate in the One City Choir this year, please send an e-mail with the information below to choir@landmarksorchestra.org. If you should have any questions or concerns, please call our Production Hotline at (617) 870-3910. Information to send: Name: Phone Number: Email: Voice Part: Choir Affiliation (if any): Hometown/Neighborhood:We hope you join us!

Monday, March 10, 2014

Every entry is totally delightful - and how much do I love that Caroline Shaw is on there? A lot!

Story about Caroline Shaw - I went to see the ensemble Roomful of Teeth at Wellesley last spring and they performed two of her compositions. And they were GREAT, and I remember thinking, "I need to commission her before she gets super-famous and completely out of my price range." One week later, she won the Pulitzer Prize. I console myself with the thought that at least my instincts are good.

Tuesday, March 04, 2014

The Messiah Sings of Christmas Past are over, and the summer sings are (clearly, if you stick your head outside) not yet upon us. So what is the Boston singer to do?

Well, happily the Zamir Chorale has stepped into the breach! Sunday, March 9 at 1:30 pm, join the Zamir Chorale and director Joshua Jacobson at the Newton City Hall to sing choruses from Handel's Judas Maccabeus. More info is here; the address is 1000 Commonwealth Ave, Newton, MA (and again, note the unusual time of 1:30 pm.) Scores will be available for those who don't have their own.

Friday, February 21, 2014

After a very darling picture of a boy reading to a cat got popular on Reddit, everyone learned about this great program in Pennsylvania where kids get practice reading by going into shelters and reading to shelter cats. You can read about it (and see the cute pictures) here and here!

Thursday, January 30, 2014

My voice teacher, Emily Romney, is holding several workshops for singers this spring, and I highly recommend them to anyone looking to take their singing to the next level, while perhaps being leery of any major additional time commitment in your life. Check it out! She is a warm, lovely person with an amazing amount of wisdom about vocal pedagogy.

Here is some more info:

The New School of Music: Workshop Series for Choral and Solo SingersDo you feel your singing voice has greater potential than you can realize on your own? Would you like to know more about how your voice works and improve your singing?

Here's an excellent opportunity to do just that.

"The Living Instrument & How It Works"

Emily Romney, workshop leaderThis series of three Sunday afternoon vocal workshops are designed to develop greater sensitivity to and confidence in your breathing, body alignment, and tone quality. Each session will include singing activities, useful information and sharing of ideas.

Friday, January 17, 2014

(I'm totally aware that perhaps I should rename this blog "A Cat-Lover's Blog, and Also Occasionally Musical Tidbits," but I do have some ideas on revitalizing things in this online corner in a month or two. Stay tuned!)

Wednesday, January 08, 2014

Hear ye, hear ye, Cantilena is holding auditions for our spring
semester! Our program is called ""Immoveable Objects, Unstoppable
Forces", and it will have everything from Schubert to Sojourner Truth.
We are particularly looking for low altos. Looooow altos. If you know
any, please send them my way! If you are one, come try out! Audition info at our website!

About Me

My name is Allegra Martin, and I am a Boston-area choral conductor and singer. My jobs include: music director of Cantilena, a women's chorale in Arlington; choral conductor at Lasell College and director of the Lasell Village Voices of Experience; and music director of First Parish Cohasset. I sing in the area with Anthology, Schola Cantorum, and anyone who will hire me! I also teach private lessons in sight-reading, theory, and conducting.